West Brom will be looking for their first Premier League points of the season when they host Chelsea this weekend.
The Baggies have lost to Leicester and Everton since their return to the top-flight and were also dumped out of the EFL Cup by Brentford in midweek.
Getty Images - Getty
Slaven Bilic is in need of a boost but that won’t be easy against big-spending Chelsea on Saturday evening.
The Blues beat Brighton in their league opener but came unstuck against champions Liverpool last weekend.
The pressure is mounting on Frank Lampard and he’ll need his stars to perform this weekend.
talkSPORT will be in the West Midlands to bring you all the action exclusively live.
West Brom v Chelsea: How to listen
This match will get under way at 5:30pm on Saturday, September 26.
Full coverage from the Hawthorns will be live on talkSPORT, with our coverage starting at 5pm.
Faye Carruthers will be your host before commentary from Nigel Adderley and Dean Ashton.
To tune in, click the radio player below or HERE for the live stream.
Here are the other ways to listen…
App iPhone – Download from the Apple store
Android – Download from Google Play
Radio – talkSPORT is available across the United Kingdom via DAB digital radio and on 1089 or 1053 AM.
TV – Listen to talkSPORT through your TV on the following channels: Sky: Channel 0108 Virgin Media: Channel 927 Freeview: Channel 723 Freesat: Channel 731
West Brom v Chelsea: Team news
West Brom defender Kieran Gibbs is suspended and loanee Conor Gallagher is ineligible to face his parent club.
Ahmed Hegazi is still recovering from his hamstring problem and will miss out again this weekend.
Kamil Grosicki and Hal Robson-Kanu will need late fitness tests while Kenneth Zohore remains out.
Chelsea could have debuts to new defenders Ben Chilwell and Thiago Silva while new goalkeeper Edouard Mendy could also start.
Andreas Christensen is banned following his red card last weekend.
Billy Gilmour, Hakim Ziyech and Christian Pulisic remain out.
West Brom v Chelsea: What has been said?
West Brom boss Slaven Bilic: “You have to be critical, but you can’t be down.
“It’s not easy because it has come all of a sudden, we only recently got promoted, last year we lost seven games.
“Seven times out of 46 you are sad, you are angry. But most of the other times we were happy.
“Now it’s a bit different. We want to stop it, we want to make it like last year of course but we can only do it by keeping the positivity in the camp.
“Not only me, the staff. We have to transmit that positivity to the players and we are doing that.
“It’s not nice when you lose 5-2 (at Everton) but there were a lot of positives in it. It is the beginning of the season. It is Everton away.
“We know we can’t concede goals from set-plays, or make those mistakes or get a red card.
“You have to criticise but there were a lot of positives there. We are a positive group.”
Getty Images - Getty
West Brom v Chelsea: Match stats and facts
- West Bromwich Albion have lost more Premier League games against Chelsea (18) than they have against any other opponent, including each of their last four in a row without scoring a single goal.
- Chelsea have won each of their last three away league games at West Brom; they have beaten them in four or more consecutive such outings twice previously – eight in a row from April 1985 to April 2011 and five between December 1964 and March 1969.
- Chelsea have lost three of their last seven away Premier League games at newly promoted sides (W4), including their most recent such clash at Sheffield United in July last season (0-3); they had only lost three of their previous 19 such matches before this (W11 D5).
- West Brom have conceded more goals than any other Premier League side so far this season (8); indeed, their eight goals against is the most they’ve ever shipped in their first two games of a league campaign.
- Chelsea have just kept one clean sheet in their 20 Premier League away games under manager Frank Lampard, winning 2-0 at Spurs in December 2019. The Blues’ last league clean sheet outside of London came in May 2019 (0-0 vs Leicester).
- West Bromwich Albion have won just 11 points from their last 48 available in the Premier League (W3 D2 L11), with all of these points being earned in Darren Moore’s six games in charge in April/May 2018 (W3 D2 L1).
- Chelsea boss Frank Lampard has won both of his previous meetings with West Bromwich Albion as a manager, winning home (3-1) and away (4-1) with Derby in the 2018-19 Championship season.
- Matheus Pereira has had a hand in both of West Brom’s Premier League goals this season (1 goal, 1 assist). Indeed, since the start of last season he’s had a hand in 26 league goals for the Baggies (9 goals, 17 assists), 11 more than any other player at the club.
- Centre-back Kurt Zouma and midfielder Jorginho are the only two players to have had more than one shot on target for Chelsea across their two Premier League games so far (2 each).
- Branislav Ivanovic made 261 Premier League appearances for Chelsea between 2008-2016, scoring 22 goals, including one against new club West Brom back in February 2014.
from Football - news, transfers, fixtures, scores, pictures https://ift.tt/3hWTvdm
via IFTTT
No Comment